9/11

Today is a day of remembrance for our nation as we give tribute to the men and women that died on this horrible day.

Here are the stats:
Times of impact: 8:46am and 9:02am
Time the burning towers stood: 56 minutes and 102 minutes.
Time they took to fall: 12 seconds
2,819 dead from 115 different nations.
343 Firemen, 37 Port Authority Officers, 23 NYPD, 9 EMT/Paramedics and 3 NYS Court Officers.

*note: this was floating around Facebook so I don't know how accurate it is. I tried to google it but couldn't find any info...we'll just say it's accurate to get an idea of what this day was like.

I can't believe it's already been 10 years... sometimes I still can't believe this happened.

I was a sophomore in high school and was up early getting ready for seminary. I had an old discolored TV in my room that only got 3 channels but I liked to watch the news in the morning while I got ready for school. As I was doing my hair, I saw the news play a clip of an airplane crashing into the side of a tall building. I didn't quite understand the magnitude or severity of what was going on until later that day.

Shortly after seminary started, one of the kids' mothers popped her head in and yelled, "another plane has crashed into the twin towers". That was the end of the lesson and we had a little discussion in seminary about what we thought was going on. Was it intentional? Terrorist threat? What on earth was going on in the other side of the country?

The talk continued at school and I remember my principal announcing over the intercom for all of us to watch the news. For the rest of the day, in every single class, we were glued to the TV. My teachers were trying to explain what was going on and assured us that we were safe. Since I only lived 25 minutes from San Francisco, there was lots of talk about the possibility of something going down in the big city...everyone was on alert and taking every precaution possible. Luckily, nothing ever did happen.

We were all scared and unsure as to what was going on New York and at the Pentagon, everything looked so chaotic in the news and we said many prayers for the people of New York. As I was sitting in my History class, I remember thinking how the textbooks would explain 9/11. How did it start? How would this day end? Why did this happen? I knew all those questions would be answered. Then, in college I saw textbook after textbook talking about 9/11. Now I know the story (though, I don't know how I feel about Loose Change).

Since this day, I've watched many documentaries and videos about 9/11 and though it's depressing to watch, I just feel so proud to be an American. Everyone was so united. I wasn't directly affected by that day but my heart goes out to all the brave men and women who lost their lives and to all those who lost loved ones.

I heard the 9/11 "Heaven" remix on the radio earlier this week and couldn't help from getting emotional.




God Bless America.